Installation file names in Windows Vista

Question

Hi,

I read in this article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709628.aspx

That Windows detects Installers through file names, following this tip, Is it better to include setup in the file name for the installer

I mean ProductSetup.msi is better than Product.msi???

It's hard to think that Windows does this kind of detection :-)

Answer 1

This only applies to EXE files. If you've got an MSI file, it's up to the MSI file to specify which parts of the MSI require elevation or not.

Answer 2

That's news to me, but it does seem like Windows Vista treats files differently when they have "setup" in their name. It will probably just prompt you for administrative rights up front if it detects that it's an installer, which is what you'd want.

Answer 3

Also worth reading is How User Account Control Affects Your Application, to ensure that your setup runs as administrator embed the correct manifest into the setup EXE. This way it doesn't matter (to Vista) what your installation is called.

That said however, if you expect the application to be installed on a terminal server then if your installer is called something like SETUP.EXE or INSTALL.EXE Terminal Server will automatically kick into "install mode". Should save you some headaches from those customers who don't know they should be in install mode first, or choose not to install via Add/Remove Programs (which also kicks install mode in automatically)